The Kansas City Chiefs lost Super Bowl I 35-10 to the Green Bay Packers. We may finally get to see the 1967 game; the Wall Street Journal reports that a videotape of the game has finally been discovered.
If you didn't see the game in person or on NBC or CBS, then you probably haven't seen the game, the Journal says. The networks reportedly didn't save the tape, and people have searched for video of the game for years. Finally, the Journal says a tape has been found and restored by the Paley Center for Media in New York.
So what does the tape show?
Here's the tape's back story via the Journal:The tape, which is in color, is an absorbing time capsule. It contains
vintage commercials for McDonald's (then boasting of "Over Two Billion
Served") and Muriel cigars ("So much more cigar for just 10 cents"). The
first touchdown in Super Bowl history -- a 37-yard pass from Green Bay's
Bart Starr to backup wide receiver Max McGee -- is shown in a replay where
the words "video tape" appear on the screen. There's some understated
commentary from CBS broadcasters Jack Whitaker, Ray Scott and Frank
Gifford ("Dawson ... Sideline ... Burford ... Incomplete.") and a rare
postgame grin from Packers head coach Vince Lombardi.
The recording also includes a shocking sight for a Super Bowl: empty
seats. The game didn't sell out, even with ticket prices that topped out
at $12.
The tape isn't perfect. The halftime show and a large chunk of the third
quarter are missing. The person who recorded it skipped over some
breaks in the action. The image pixelates on occasion, the sound quality
varies, and there are occasional eruptions of white static at the side
of the screen.
The 94-minute tape, which has never been shown to the public, was donated to the center by its owner in return for having it restored.Although SI valued the tape at more than $1 million, the NFL only offered the tape's owner $30,000 for it. He wisely turned the league down.The tape's owner said through his attorney, Steve Harwood of Norfolk, Va., that the recording had been shot by his client's father, who recorded the broadcast by WDAU-TV in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on a videotape machine at his workplace in hopes the tapes might someday be valuable.
In the summer of 2005, Mr. Harwood says that the tape's owner found out that Sports Illustrated had named the missing Super Bowl broadcast one of the "lost treasures" of sports and estimated the tapes were worth more than $1 million. Mr. Harwood says his client decided to approach the Paley Center about restoring the tape.
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Technically, video tape was invented about 1956, and there a small number of shows as far back as from the late '50s that the tapes of which were saved,even a few in their original color.
I didn't realize that videotape had been invented when the Chiefs were actually competitive. This should be interesting to watch!
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